The painterly abstraction of Sam Francis is most often associated with the American Abstract Expressionism. As a leading second-generation exponent of the movement, he created some of the most innovative explorations of colour and light in twentieth-century art. His work can be found in numerous public collections worldwide, including MoMa (New York), Tate Gallery (London), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Guggenheim Museum (New York), the Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh), the Idemitsu Museum of Arts (Tokyo) and the Centre Pompidou (Paris). Francis’ treatment of colour and space was profoundly influenced by a 1957 visit to Japan, where he eventually established a studio. Although he returned to California in the early 1960s, he maintained studios around the world working in Bern, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, and Tokyo. He was the first Post-War American painter whose reach was truly international.

After 1980 the formal structure of the grid gradually disappeared from Francis' work and progressed into his fascination with snakelike forms and colorful drip. At that time, Sam Francis became extremely active in creating lithographs and monotypes. He was so enamored with the print process that he established The Litho Shop, Inc to print and publish a limited edition of his multiples. The prints he executed bear many similarities to his paintings. In both mediums, Francis uses vibrant colors and abstract forms, and his fascination with the graphic arts gave way to some of the most innovative experiments within fine art editions of his generation.

Sam Francis’ monotypes are his most sought-after printed works. Both painterly and graphic, monotypes are a hybrid of printmaking and painting, that embraces uniqueness over multiplicity; each impression is entirely unique. According to the Sam Francis Foundation, monotypes hold the same regard as unique works. Monotypes are created by applying ink, paint, or dry pigments on a smooth surface. Before the ink or paper dries, a paper is applied on top with firm pressure. The result is a print made from the impression that cannot be recreated. Sam Francis preferred monotypes as they were considered the most painterly method in printmaking. He created unique results by constantly altering the pressure, technique and paints he used in the process. These rare and exceptional works are wonderfully layered and colorful and demonstrate the gestural and spontaneous style of art which Francis is known for.

Samuel Francis was born in 1923 in California. His family was defined by a rich heritage and culture, counting Samuel Pepys, Paul Revere and Henri Tolouse- Lautrec among their ancestors. Francis began painting in his early twenties. He privately studied painting under David Park, pioneer of the Bay Area Figurative School. During this time, Francis became part of the Abstract Expressionism movement as a second-generation artist. Though largely self-taught, by the summer of 1950, he was at the frontier of becoming a significant Post-War American painter. Francis travelled widely throughout his career. He enrolled at the Fernand Léger Atelier in Paris where he became familiar with Pierre Bonnard’s and Henri Matisse’s explorations of colour and light. The lessons he absorbed from his time in Paris resulted in immediate critical acclaim and led to his association with Art Informel, though he was never formally tied to any movement. Several years spent in Japan influenced his appreciation of the importance of whiteness and the idea of the void. His paintings, as the Japanese poet and critic Yoshiaki Tono aptly noted, are of a “completely calculated Innocence”, a reference to the intuitive simplicity and understated nature of Francis’ oeuvre.